The U.S. Supreme Court will not take up a challenge to the Boyertown Area School District's bathroom policy. On Tuesday, the court declined to hear an appeal filed by a conservative Christian law firm based in Harrisburg on behalf of six students. The decision upholds a previous ruling by a federal appeals court allowing transgender students to use whichever bathroom they choose.

           Dana T. Bedden, the district's superintendent, expressed hope that the decision would provide an opportunity for the entire community to "move forward with healing and acceptance of differences in an inclusive manner."

            In a prepared statement issued Tuesday, Bedden said, "Inclusive education for students, staff, and the community can only be successful when the Boyertown Area School District community feels that each person is genuinely a part of the school district."

            He added, "Creating a place where everyone feels welcome will require an open and honest discussion about differences where everyone has a voice, and institutional respect for people of all backgrounds and abilities. In inclusive schools, the establishment of such a climate benefits everyone by fostering an environment where our students and their families are valued."

            In November, the firm filed a petition for review before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of six students in the Boyertown Area School District in response to an unfavorable ruling by the 3^rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. In an opinion filed July 26, a three-judge panel expressed its support for a lower court denying an injunction requested by the plaintiffs, who argued that their rights were violated because the district allowed transgender students to utilize the locker rooms and bathrooms to which they identify.

            The judges concluded that under the circumstances "the presence of transgender students in the locker and restrooms is no more offensive to constitutional or Pennsylvania-law privacy interests than the presence of the other students who are not transgender. Nor does their presence infringe on the plaintiffs' rights under Title IX."

            The decision, written by Judge Theodore A. McKee, supports a claim by a District Court opinion that denied the plaintiffs' request for an injunction. According to McKee, the lower court concluded in an "exceedingly thorough, thoughtful, and well-reasoned opinion that the plaintiffs had not shown that they are likely to succeed on the merits and because they had not shown that they will be irreparably harmed absent the injunction."

            In March of 2017, an unnamed student at Boyertown High School filed a civil lawsuit against the district and three administrators in federal court for allegedly violating his right to bodily privacy in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.         

            Gender identity issues appear to be at the center of this case. According to the suit, filed by two Christian-based organizations, the plaintiff was exposed involuntarily "to an undressed student of the opposite sex while changing in his school's locker room."

            According to the text of the 31-page complaint filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom, the incident violated the male student's rights as identified in the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Title IX and Pennsylvania's Public School Code of 1949.